


Never Back Down

by HollyEDolly



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, No Extraction Plan, Strike Team Delta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4783454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollyEDolly/pseuds/HollyEDolly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's never backed down from a fight her whole life but can he reach her where she is now? A one-shot inspired by the resuscitation scene in "The Abyss".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Back Down

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago but I only posted to Tumblr. So I've decided to post it up here, it's one of my favourites I've ever done for any pairing even though it makes me all weepy. I hope you like it :)

It had been a bloody battle, these Hydra boys were tough to take out but they’d done this a million times before. Never had an extraction plan, never needed one but there’s always gonna be that one time. That one time when everything goes to hell and no matter how hard you fight it’s just not enough. 

No-ones invincible not even her, he see’s her go down but his backs against the wall. He’s outnumbered fighting for his life but he doesn’t think anything of it, she’ll get back up she always gets back up. That’s what he tells himself as he takes out target after target, when the enemy is put down and the dust settles she’s still on the ground. She didn’t get back up, he has no idea what they hit her with but she isn’t getting back up.

She’s on her back in the snow, her hair fanned out like a red halo against the crisp white carpet beneath her. Her eyes are closed, her face serene she could be sleeping but she’s not asleep. Racing to her side he checks for a pulse, when he finds none sheer terror penetrates his veins turning his blood to ice. 

She has to be OK she’s always OK, he starts CPR if she won’t breath he’ll do it for her and if her heart won’t beat he’ll make it. He radios through to Hill for back-up, she tells him Coulson and his team are the nearest but they’ll still be 20 minutes.

“Come on Tasha, come on breath” he pushes down on her chest hard, he won’t entertain the idea that she won’t pull through. She has to pull through, she has to make it because he can’t lose her, not now, not after everything they’ve been through. She can’t die like this in the middle of Siberia, it wasn’t supposed to end like this, it wouldn’t end like this. 

He searches for a gunshot, a stab wound anything that will tell him what he needs to fix but he finds nothing. She’s perfect like always, he breaks off his compressions and breaths for her, before starting the process all over again. Coulson will get here, his scientist will figure it out he just needs to keep her blood circulating till then.

“I got you Tasha, I got you” he’s never been a praying man but in the moments before the bus arrived he must have called on every god. Promised them anything, if they’d bring her back to him, he doesn’t turn when he hears them approach. 

He carries on breathing for her, trying to make her heart beat. It’s only when Coulson puts his hand on his shoulder that he moves away so the young scientists can take over. He doesn’t go far though. he watches as they shock her as they intubate her, with each shock they become more and more despondent. They have no idea what was done to her, the women tells him they’d need to run tests but whatever it is it’s stopped her heart and she’s not responding. There’s nothing they can do, she’s gone.

“No” he shakes his head.

"Clint, I’m sorry but she’s gone” Coulson’s voice is a broken whisper.

“No!!! Tasha you wake up you hear. You never backed down from a fight your entire life, don’t start now. You gotta fight you hear me, you gotta come back” he yells, he shakes off the hands that try to comfort him “She’s not gone, she can’t be gone TASHA GOD FUCKING DAMMIT YOU INFURIATING BITCH YOU WAKE UP NOW!!!” he shakes her, screaming willing her to hear him wherever she is, willing her with all his heart and soul to come back.

Then he’s cradling her head rocking them back and forth as the others look on helplessly “You want me to beg, fine I’m begging just breath baby, breath. I’ll do anything you want just breath, breath Tasha” he feels the tear as it tracks it’s way down his cheek, he can’t give up even though in his heart he knows she’s gone he can’t give up. She can’t be dead, she just can’t be this is not how it’s supposed to end.

***  
He springs up in bed, his body soaked in cold sweat he’s disorientated for a moment. Until he looks down, he’s in his apartment and she…is sound asleep next to him her hair fanned out like a red halo on the snow white pillow. It was just a dream, oh god it was just a horrible dream she’s OK, he watches the steady rise and fall of her chest for a long time after that reassuring himself that she’s OK, lying beside her he wraps his arms around her, she turns in her sleep her head finding his chest as she snuggles into him. Kissing the crown of her head he whispers “I got you baby, I got you” and closes his eyes in sweet relief.


End file.
